Infants and other incontinent individuals wear absorbent articles such as diapers to receive and contain urine and other body exudates. Absorbent articles function both to contain discharged materials and to isolate these materials from the body of the wearer and from the wearer's garments and bed clothing. Disposable absorbent articles having many different basic designs are known to the art. For example, U.S. Pat. Re. 26,152, entitled "Disposable Diaper" issued to Duncan and Baker on Jan. 31, 1967 describes a disposable diaper which has achieved wide acceptance and commercial success.
In order to provide better fit and to reduce leakage, absorbent articles have been provided with elastic features. U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,003, entitled "Contractible Side Portions For Disposable Diaper", issued to Kenneth B. Buell on Jan. 14, 1975, describes an elasticized leg cuff disposable diaper which has achieved wide acceptance and commercial success. U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,092 issued to Buell et al., on Sep. 29, 1992 describes an absorbent article having an elastic waist feature improving dynamic fit as well as containment characteristics. U.S. Pat. No. 4,857,067 issued to Wood, et al. on Aug. 15, 1989 describes a disposable diaper with elastic side panels to fit over the hips of the wearer. The elastic features are designed to expand and contract with the wearer's motions and to maintain the fit of the absorbent article about the wearer during use (i.e. provide sustained dynamic fit).
However, it has been found that absorbent articles having elastic features still have a tendency to gap or to be too tight during use. As the wearer moves, changes occur in the wearer's body measurements, particularly in the hips and thighs, thereby subjecting the diaper to dynamic forces. These dynamic forces tend to deform the materials making up the diaper and tend to push the diaper away from the body. As a result, the diaper tends to sag or gap away from the wearer, especially in the regions of dynamic motion such as the hips and thighs. Conventional disposable diapers were originally made of non-elastic materials unable to elastically expand to accommodate the wearer's bodily movements. The introduction of unitary elastic side panel features to conventional disposable diapers has improved their fit and comfort by allowing the side panels to expand generally in the lateral direction around the waist of the wearer. However, unitary elastic side panels are unable to fully elastically expand in directions other than the lateral direction without placing undue pressure on the wearer's legs, hips or waist. Because the wearer's movements create dynamic forces in many different directions, conventional disposable diapers having unitary elastic side panel features still tend to gap away from the body causing an increased likelihood of leakage and exerting forces on the wearer that can be uncomfortable and cause red marks on the wearer's skin.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide an absorbent article having improved extensible side panels that provide better fit and wearer comfort as well as reduced leakage, sagging and gapping during use.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article having improved dynamic fit about the waist and leg of the wearer by reducing sagging and gapping of the absorbent article on the wearer.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article having unique multi-directional extensible side panels that expand and contract in multiple directions to minimize the effects of the dynamic forces created by the wearer's movements, thereby increasing freedom of motion and comfort for the wearer while improving sustained dynamic fit of the absorbent article.
These and other objectives of the present invention will be more readily apparent when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.